A blog about dining, cooking, and eating in and around Orange County, California.

Monday, November 03, 2003

Wat Thai Temple - North Hollywood

Had a fantastic experience yesterday at the Wat Thai Temple's Loy Krathong Festival. I've been to the usual food court they have on weekends, but this was something special. Thanks to Curt for the heads up post last week. There were food vendors galore, selling everything from pad thai, noodle soups, satays, and durian ice cream. There were things I haven't seen or heard of before. The music, the aromas -- it was like being transported to Thailand; we felt we weren't in the Valley anymore!

Here's a rundown of what we tried. If you know what these dishes are called in Thai, please educate me, as I would like to know:

1. We started with a tasty fried dish of wide, flat rice noodles stir-fried with dark soy sauce (and fish sauce) with greens and chicken. Noodles were chewy and had a nice bite; the greens were still crunchy and fresh.

2. Chicken and pork satay. Sweet with a nice barbecue char around the edges. Would've been killer if they came with a peanut sauce.

4. Mussels fried with glutinous rice flour and egg, on a bed of bean sprouts. This is a textural dream -- crunchy caramelized fried edges, chewy, with seafood flavor all complemented with the freshness of the crisp bean sprouts.

5. Seafood rice noodle soup, with slices of fish cake, some crunchy white fungus, and bits of fried tofu. The broth was a light pink from the sweet and sour chili sauce they put in. Delicious and refreshing with a little bit heat.

#2 = Stay Gai & Stay Moo (Thai's pronounce 'satay' as 'stay', moo = pork), peanut sauce would only be for the chicken, for pork or chicken a sweet chili sauce is traditional (can be found in Thai or China town, doesn't have the sour element you find in Chinese sweet & sour).

#3 = Luchin Goon (goon = shrimp)

#7 I think of as coconut dessert pancakes. Traditionally has a few kernals of sweet corn in each.